Betty Jean Corridor, entrance proper, attends a gathering of the Coal Employment Venture in Charleston, W.Va., in 1984. Picture courtesy of Earl Dotter/UMW Journal through AP.
Betty Jean Corridor, a pioneering lawyer who devoted her life to advocating for ladies within the mining business, handed away on Aug. 16, 2024, on the age of 78. Her work within the Nineteen Seventies opened the coal business to girls, a discipline that had lengthy been dominated by males, with a historical past steeped in gender discrimination and harmful working situations.
She based the Coal Employment mission (CEP) in 1978. The group filed a federal criticism towards 153 coal corporations, accusing them of blatant discrimination and demanding they open their ranks to girls.
Corridor’s efforts resulted in authorized settlements that not solely offered again pay to girls who had been denied jobs but additionally secured future hiring commitments from mining corporations. This landmark achievement allowed girls in coal-producing areas to pursue jobs that have been usually their solely hope for supporting their households.
Corridor’s work didn’t cease at getting girls employed; she additionally targeted on guaranteeing they have been handled pretty on the job. She documented instances of extreme office harassment, together with sexual assaults and unsafe working situations.